Posts Tagged ‘pvc figures’

Before Christmas I had pre-ordered the Figuarts Zero Ichigo Kurosaki Last Gekkatensho figure created by Bandai. It was due to come out late December/early January. Right before Christmas was when I decided to get my PC fixed and discovered that the problem had been the CPU which ended up costing me all the pay I had left over (after bills and groceries etc) and I wouldn’t be paid again for another fortnight. Sure enough, I received a request about a day after Christmas asking to pay for the figure. Obviously in having no money I couldn’t pay for it and ended up apologising to HLJ. They thanked me for my honesty and (unfortunately) cancelled the order. After all Ichigo was extremely popular and within two days after release, it was off the shelves. I was pretty sad about that and figured that would be it. None of the other online stores I buy from had him in stock as he’d sold out quickly.

A while back now I started to get into collecting figma figures, despite the fact I’d always chosen not to get into buying little action figures of female anime characters. Now I’ve gone onto something different again (I’m still collecting figmas though). PVC figures – these are large, fixed posed characters to collect. I’m specifically sticking to male characters for these ones as I won’t be able to afford them as regularly as I do figmas (not that figmas are that affordable either). I’ve bought two so far, with one arriving just the other day, and three more on pre-order. Whilst figma’s can generally cost around the $35-$50 AUD mark, PVC figures can cost from $50-$80 and upwards depending on the scale you choose and the brand. If you get any from the Hot Toys or Sideshow Collectibles (which focus more on American characters rather than Anime characters) you are looking at over $100-$200 AUD. So like I said, spending upwards of $80 (not including shipping and postage), I can only afford these once in a while. Thankfully male PVC figures are few and far between but when they do come out they kind of get grabbed almost immediately.

My first PVC figure was actually on sale and cost closer to $40 which was pretty good. His name is Masaomi Arikawa and he’s from Harukanaru Tokinonakade. I’m presuming he’s from the game rather than the anime series as I don’t remember seeing him in the series (though I haven’t watched that in ages). He’s quite good looking and I like the pose he’s been given. He seems well made and he’s a decent size for a figure that is 1/10 scale. Even the stand he is on is pretty cool.

The other character I’ve picked up and only received recently is Izaya Orihara from Drrr!!! He was extremely popular during pre-order. I’m lucky that I was checking out HLJ on a regular basis when I saw him listed and thought I’d add him to my pre-order list. Within a few weeks of him appearing on the website he was forever on “Order stop” until finally he got released and now he’s “Discontinued”. To be honest, although I have the series I have yet to watch it! But the characters themselves are pretty cool looking so I am looking forward to watching it when I get the chance. The figure looks pretty good and is a bigger size than Arikawa at 1/8 scale. He comes with two sets of arms, one extended and one bent towards his head. The extended arm holds a knife while the bent arm holds a phone. I guess you could change the ‘accessories’ but that would look a bit weird. As you can see from the pictures here, I’ve chosen to have the ‘phone in hand’ pose. The next PVC figure to come out for Drrr!! is Celty Sturluson though I’m not really keen to get it since its a female figure (even if she isn’t a ‘human’ character). There are also rumblings that Shizuo Heiwajima will be released as a PVC figure in the future too so I’ll be definitely keeping an eye out for him.

The other PVC figures I have on pre-order are Shiki (from Togainu no Chi), Luke Fon Fabre (from Tales of the Abyss (currently in “Order Stop” mode)) and a re-stock of Yuri Lowell (from Tales of Vesperia). Shiki and Luke are due out next month while Yuri is being restocked in June.

On the note of collecting… kind of… I’ve not really been making much headway with my Gundam kits. I’m still in the middle of putting together Wing Zero (MG version). I’m actually keen to pick up the MG version of Sandrock, as its the only other Gundam from that series that looks really cool. I don’t mind Deathscythe, but I’m still making up my mind on whether to pick up Deathscythe MG or Deathscythe Hell MG. Both look pretty good to me.

On a good note (still on Gundam), Bandai are releasing Gundam SEED gundams as MG versions. They have already released Dual Shroud, and in June they are going to release the Blitz Gundam as an MG. This is to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Gundam SEED. I’ve seen sketches for two more to be released in MG versions – Aegis and Justice, but the one I’d also like them to release is the plain ol’ Strike Gundam! There is a PG version (I can’t afford it and its never in stock) but I’d be happy with an MG version. I’m also still waiting for them to release the Kshatriya as an MG. That would be a huge kit but one awesome one!

So this week Mass Effect 3 finally arrives. I’ve been so looking forward to this game but have held off on playing the demo. It gets released in the US I believe today (tomorrow our time) while we get it on Thursday. I delayed pre-ordering until almost the last minute as EB games tends to do something ‘extra’ the week leading up to the game’s release but I got a bit worried so I went in and pre-ordered the Collector’s Edition. Lucky I did! I pre-ordered that early last week and over the weekend I went onto the website and on the page for the Xbox 360 version of the Collectors Edition, it says “ORDER ONLINE ONLY”. I was like ‘WTf?? I ordered in store does that mean I will still get it or did I have to order online to get this version??” I went into EB Games on Saturday and ended up asking the clerk what the heck was going on. He said that the instore pre-ordering for the 360 version was sold out by last Friday and so if you wanted it you had to pre-order it online. I told him I’d pre-ordered mine earlier last week and he said “If you’ve already pre-ordered it then you are lucky and yes, you will still get it.” Well duh of course I would! I don’t know why I panicked about it but you see these things and then wonder what the hell is going on. I did start playing ME from the start, trying to create a new Shepherd and seeing if I could run through both games before I picked up ME3, however I put the game down and haven’t touched it since so it looks like I’ll just have to go with one of the two Shepherds I’d used in the previous games. I really can’t wait… Luckily I have a podiatrist appointment in the arvo so I will pick it up after I’ve been to my appointment before I head home.

The exciting thing about playing ME3 and any other game is that I have a brand new TV. I picked up a Samsung LED LCD 3D TV (!!) not last weekend but the weekend before that. It arrived last Tuesday and its awesome. Its a 40″ version though originally I was happy to go with a 32″ version. My room is not that big so its probably a bit too big to be in this room… nevermind. I asked about it when I was in store (the 32″ version) so he went to check it out the back and when he returned, I was standing in front of the 40″ version and he said they didn’t have any of the 32″ in stock at the moment but they did have a 40″ in stock. I said I’d take it! Especially since they started up a 10% off all TVs the day I went to buy it! I’ve also got a blu-ray player to go with it and have already watched a 3D movie on it. The TV came with its own set of 3D glasses so that was pretty cool. I’ve also been able to transfer any episodes of TV series that I like to a USB and plug it into the TV so I can watch it on the big screen. Its great! Video games look great on it too.